There once was a maiden with six older brothers Who all left their home as the moon raised up high They sat in the woods of the great Sevenwaters Till a witch appeared out of the shadows nearby

The witch cast a spell most foul and evil They screamed and they fought but they just couldn’t win But the maiden was hiding, and through the leaves She could see six white swans where her brothers had been.

“You must hide in the woods and weave six shirts of starwort, With your own heart and hands you can change them again! But remember no matter how much you will suffer If you speak but one word it will all be in vain…"

The maiden she wove and she suffered in silence The forest her shelter, a dark cave her home Her brothers consoled her during the solstice But dawn never waits and she woke up alone

The maiden was found by a man down from Britain Whose hair was as red as his heart was kind Inside his warm home there was friendship and love But she couldn’t imagine the doom she would find

For a devious plan by an evil man founded Was trapping her inside a web of despair Spinning and weaving she sat in her cell Until finally the day of her burning was there

Oh the flames licked her feet and the people they shouted But the maiden was strong and she saidn’t a word And the moment of truth was now finally upon her By six swans her silent calling was heard

And the shirts she had woven with her own hands and heart She threw them up high and at last she could see Her brothers escaped from their feathery prisons But the youngest would never be totally free

The maiden returned with her husband and brothers But the rest of her life would that memory sting Even though she had rescued the great Sevenwaters In her dreams she could still hear the beating of wings

Oh, the flames licked her feet and the people they shoutedbut the maiden was strong and she saidn’t a word.And the moment of truth was now finally upon herBy six swans her silent calling was heard…

~~~

The fourth installment of my Six Swans illustration project, depicting the climax of the story: our heroine is sentenced to be burned for crimes she never committed. She uses all her willpower not to scream or cry out in pain as the fire starts to rise, and silently calls out to her brothers. Once the swans come flying in, she throws up the shirts she wove out of starwort and breaks the curse, turning them into humans again. For such a powerful scene, I wanted to create an equally powerful image. I haven’t counted the hours that went into this, but I think it’s more than in all three previous images combined. The perspective, the architecture and the values drove me insane! You can view the progress of this piece here.

Because THIS GUY. Just. This guy. To all the people that convinced me to start watching BBC’s Sherlock: I love you. But gawd I hate you. But I love you. There is so much to love about this show. It’s the writing, the acting, the amazing video direction, the mind games, the music… it makes me feel all these feels.

The past couple of weeks I’ve been fighting the urge to make this portrait because I had to do homework instead, but I always ended up doing neither. So I figured I’d just… get it out of my system, then. ^^ I worked from a bunch of really shitty reference photos I kind of puzzled together, so that was an extra challenge.

Now I’ll just leave this here, wrap myself in my shock blanket and sleep for a couple of days because I only got about 4 hours in last night (which may or may not have been because of the season finale).

During my stay in Germany, I end up mostly hanging out with the other international students there. Danes, Swedes, Frenchmen, Italians, Spaniards… So: a language improvement? Yes. Just not the kind you want to put on your resumé.

HEY EVERYBODY! :D GREAT NEWS! My Tuesday Comics now have their very own ENGLISH facebook page! Go like that shit! :D

This happened to me last week, after an entire day of German classes. A classmate found me in the train home and exclaimed: “Hiii, oh hey you also take this train?! That’s so great! Now we can travel home together every week! “

Normally I’d be up for a bit of conversation, but German Eef isn’t all that chatty I’m afraid… The question is how I’m going to avoid this in the upcoming weeks.